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| File photo: French National Front leader Marine Le Pen and presidential election candidate walks on the Promenade des Anglais with her bodyguard Thierry Legier in Nice |
French police detained far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Penโs bodyguard and chief of staff in custody on Wednesday for questioning over alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants, Le Penโs lawyer said.
Le Pen denounced the latest move in a financial sleaze case that has landed her in the spotlight alongside another leading candidate, Francois Fillon, a right-winger being investigated over public funds he paid to his wife and children.
Wary that her image and lead position in polls of voting intentions could be hurt, Le Pen on Wednesday said she was convinced voters would not fall for what her lawyer Marcel Ceccaldi called a โmanipulationโ designed to destabilise her.
โThe French can tell the difference between genuine scandals and political dirty-tricks,โ Le Pen, who has previously denied any wrongdoing in the affair, told reporters.
The two held for questioning are Le Penโs bodyguard, Thierry Legier, and her chief of staff, Catherine Griset, key figures in an investigation opened following demands by the European Parliament that Le Pen repay money she is accused of wrongly paying the two.
Le Pen is consistently tipped in opinion polls to win the April 23 first round of the two-round race but she is also tipped to lose the two-way runoff ballot on May 7 โ to either Fillon or another independent candidate, the centrist Emmanuel Macron.
Wednesdayโs detentions followed a police raid on Monday on Le Penโs National Front party headquarters on the western edge of Paris, while she was abroad.
Fillonโs poll ratings fell after the scandal concerning him surfaced in late January but they have since steadied and he is more or less neck-to-neck with Macron for the other slot in the May 7 duel.
